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Poll finds over 46% against RERA house price index

Majority of people say the index will not help buyers, but keep prices artificially high.

By Elsa Baxter

Tue 13 Oct 2009 07:16 AM

More than 46 percent of people do not support plans for a house price index for the Dubai property market saying it will keep prices artificially high, according to an Arabian Business poll.

A total of 46.9 percent of respondents to the online poll said they thought the index by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), planned for next year, would keep house prices at an inflated level.

Only 4 percent of people polled said the index would benefit buyers by bringing a consistency to the city’s real estate market.

RERA announced last week that it planned to introduce a house price index, similar to its rental index, in early 2010.

The index will cover all property developments in the emirate and will help to benchmark property values, Mahmoud Hesham Al Burai, director of development at RERA said at the time.

He added that the co-operation of all 420 developers and 8,000 brokers registered with the real estate watchdog would be central to the index’s success.

The AB poll found that 12.6 percent of people thought the index was a good idea “to some degree”, but that buyers would lose out on cheaper house prices, with extra charges added on by brokers to recoup their losses.

While 36.6 percent of people said the index would not make any difference because the emirate’s real estate market was stagnant after seeing huge losses since the start of the year when the global financial crisis hit.